


carnival

by ocaptainrogers



Series: prompt fills [1]
Category: The Hobbit RPF
Genre: Carnival, Fluff, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-23
Updated: 2013-07-23
Packaged: 2017-12-21 04:03:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/895559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocaptainrogers/pseuds/ocaptainrogers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>FOR MY DEAR JESSICA WHO SENT ME THIS PROMPT:</p><p>"Aidan and Dean go to a carnival and on the Ferris Wheel, Dean kind of confesses his not-just-best-friends feelings. Bonus points for fluff and Dean winning his boyfriend a big teddy bear in a carnival game :'D"</p>
            </blockquote>





	carnival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Neptunium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neptunium/gifts).



It’s a silly idea. So sappy and pathetic that Dean almost doesn’t know what to do with himself. He doesn’t even like carnivals that much, just saw this colourful poster hanging up in the window of a shop down in Wellington and turned to Aidan and said, “Hey, we should totally go check it out!”

It was just a joke! How was he to know Aidan adheres carnivals with such ferocity that it makes Dean embarrassed looking at him when he’s only _talking about carnivals_?

Aidan does, though, love carnivals something fierce, that is - and that’s why they’re standing in the Ferris-wheel line with a bag of peanuts and a stick of cotton candy each, Dean trying not to show how boring he thinks this really is, and Aidan smiling like he’s made of sunshine and rainbows and white pearls glittering on the surface of the fucking ocean.

Aidan is bumping around and getting pink cotton candy in his beard and on his shirt, and can’t decide which foot he means to settle his weight on. It’s both sort of annoying and in some strange way _adorable_ and Dean decides not to comment on it.

He also thinks to himself that calling a thirty-year old man _adorable_ is something that just shouldn’t happen, but then he sneaks a glance over at his over-animate friend with his big grin and hearty laugh and thinks that _adorable_ doesn’t even do him justice.

He looks at Aidan for another second and then glances away. This thing he’s got going on is so contrite and difficult as fuck so Dean shoves that thought right out of his head and takes a lick of his cotton candy instead. Maybe he should open the packet of peanuts, too, just to have something else to distract himself with, but just as he’s about to, a hand grabs hold of his arm and when he looks up he’s met with one of Aidan Turner’s bright grins.

“It’s us now, Dean!” he says, along with something else, but Dean’s too busy trying to get the pink, sticky stuff into his mouth and not _around_ it to pay much attention. He mutters a ‘yeah’ and follows Aidan into the thing and over to the bench. It’s pink and sticky that, too. And as dirty as the cig-butt covered gravel they were just standing on.

Aidan doesn’t seem to mind, though. Either that or he’s so happy to be here that a dirty little seat in a dirty little booth is too insignificant to even take notice of. Dean momentarily wishes he could be as excited about carnivals as Aidan’s capable of being, but Dean’s never been a big fan of carnivals. Not circuses either. Definitely not Zoos. It’s all a bit too fake, he thinks. Just a butt load of trash and sugar, jugglers, screaming kids, and lame rides that doesn’t do much else than take you fast enough for a fly to get stuck in your eye, or down your throat. Dean claps his mouth shut and tries to will the unhappy grimace off his face.

“You even been in one o’ these before, Dean?” says Aidan from Dean’s left and he’s suddenly reminded again of their current emplacement. It has started moving; they’re already half way up, but Dean guesses he was too busy grouching about things to notice.

“Once,” he says and twirls the cotton candy-stick between his fingers.

“Oh,” Aidan hums and he’s still smiling, Dean can hear it in his voice. He wants so badly to turn his head and marvel at it, but he doesn’t. He takes another bite of his candy and shuts up, trying to enjoy the view as best he can.

“When was that?” comes Aidan’s next question a moment after, along with a quiet laugh and a ‘whoo!’ from being so high up.

Dean wants to say ‘it’s only forty feet’, but he doesn’t. “I was twelve, I think. Didn’t really like it that much, to be honest.” He hopes he’s not as gloomy as he thinks he is - he doesn’t want to spoil Aidan’s fun, especially when he was so excited to drag Dean with him out here, like a kid finally catching sight of the open gates to Disney Land.

Aidan shrugs beside him. “Well, hope’s not as bad this time around,” he says and nudges Dean in the arm with his elbow when he doesn’t immediately answer.

“No, this is actually pretty cool, Aidan,” Dean says when he finally looks up at him. He can’t help but smile, and finds that it’s even better than _pretty cool_ now that he’s taking the time to enjoy it.

The sky is dark, but clear, and they can see the stars if they look up. Down, under them are thousand tiny little lights and loud music. They’re playing the _Wilhelm Tell Overture_ , Dean learns after a moment, now that he pays attention to it, and can’t stop the tiny smile forming his lips.

“Aye, so ya like it?” Aidan nudges him again and smiles that smile of his that makes Dean feel like the most fortunate and unlucky person on Earth, all at once. It’s a tedious affair, being friends with Aidan Turner. Especially when _friends_ is all they’re ever going to get.

“Yeah, I like it,” Dean chuckles and eats the rest of his cotton candy, dropping the thin wooden stick onto the floor at his feet once he’s completely done with it. Aidan doesn’t take any notice, or perhaps he’s pretending not to. “Never thought I was gonna say this, Aid, but I’m glad you dragged me into this thing. It’s actually not that bad.”

“’s beautiful,” Aidan mutters beside him as they’re going up again and away from the loud music and bright lights down below. “Oi, look at those stars over there,” he suddenly cries and then his hand is on top of Dean’s on the iron rail and it just … stays there.

Dean swallows thickly and goes completely still. Maybe if he doesn’t move Aidan won’t notice that they’re practically holding hands.

“D’ya see ‘em?” Aidan asks again and his fingers twitch where they’re resting on top of Dean’s and all he can think is, ‘holy shit was it on _purpose_?’

“Where?” he says then and feels himself smiling, finding that he’s starting to like this whole thing a lot more than he was one hour ago when they were buying tickets at the entry. It’s actually sort of romantic, if he allows his thoughts to wander down that track – not that he doesn’t do it all the time, it’s just that he’s very good at making himself forget he ever entertained those thoughts at all.

Right now, though, he’s sitting next to Aidan on a fucking Ferris-wheel in the middle of the night when they have early calls tomorrow, and then he just feels like being as self-indulgent as he bloody can. This is probably why he does a very stupid thing that he promised himself never to do.

“Right over there, next to the moon,” Aidan says and points in their direction. Dean follows his finger and sees a cluster of stars, most of them faint and almost too vague to catch, but some are brighter. He feels like he should know the sign they’re part of, but can’t seem to remember the name, no matter how hard he tries.

“Yeah, I see ‘em.”

“’s nice.”

“Mmm,” Dean hums and before he knows it he’s got his hand over Aidan’s instead of the other way around. A moment of panic passes, but it’s fleeting and when the initial unease has passed he feels he couldn’t take his hand away even if he wanted to. “I’m glad we did this. Even though I’m not a huge fan of all … this.”

Aidan laughs beside him and Dean can’t deny himself the pleasure of watching Aidan smile, so he turns towards him and tries not to look too much like a lost little puppy. “Me, too, man. Me, too.”

And then he does the thing he wasn’t supposed to do. “I’m glad it’s you up here with me.” He swallows once and turns back to look at the stars Aidan pointed out to him, twinkling blue and purple and white over there next to the full moon on the clear night sky. “’m glad it’s you,” he mutters again and feels his face grow warm with embarrassment, now that he’s finally gotten over the initial bafflement that accompanies a night out alone with Mr Turner. Damn his brain.

“What’re ya tryin’ ta say there, Deano?” comes the reply from Aidan not two seconds later and Dean wishes he’d never said anything to him about that poster on the window in that store. It would’ve definitely saved him the embarrassment that’s bound to be coming around right about now.

“I just … you’re a great mate, man, just wanted to tell you that. I appreciate your company and-,”

“Aw, fuck off, O’Gorman. Tryin’ ta weave yer way outta that one, eh? Ride’s almost over and I advise you to finish what you were gonna say before we’re back on the ground,” Aidan cuts him off and although his words are less kind, his voice is soft and bubbly with barely repressed laughter. Dean wants to flick his ears off for being a prick, but refrains and shoves his hands down his pockets instead, wondering how the hell Aidan knew he had something heavier to get off his chest.

“No, fuck _you_ , you fuckin’ shit. Here I am, trying to be sentimental and you go off and ruin it. Typical.”

“What – what were you gonna say?” Aidan asks and he’s laughing now and none too gently throws his arm around Dean’s shoulders and squeezes him. He keeps shaking and squeezing and _hugging_ and nagging that at last Dean finally relents and doesn’t let himself care about what might become of their friendship now.

“I really like you, Aidan. That’s what I was going to say. I like you.”

“Well, I like you a lot, too, Deano, yer my best fuckin’ mate. Of course I _like_ you! Now yer just talkin’ nonsense, I don’t understand any o’ this, to be honest.”

“Yeah, well,” Dean says and scratches the back of his head with the hand that isn’t caught between himself and Aidan. “Let’s just put it this way, then: if we were in first grade, this is where I’d toss a note at your head with a question and two small boxes on it.”

He hears Aidan mutter ‘two small boxes’ before he finally gets it. Dean holds his breath and screws his eyes shut. “Y’know what, we can just forget all that, ok? Oh, look! the ride’s over, let’s be off. I saw this knife-throwing booth when we first came in and I’ve been dying to try!” he extracts himself from Aidan’s grasp and jumps out of their little house on the Ferris-wheel and skitters off in the direction of the knife-throwing booth.

“Oi, Dean, wait!” he hears Aidan call from behind him and feels inclined to stop, but doesn’t. His legs are shaking and his heartbeats are uneven and he knows that if he stopped walking right now he’d fall straight to the ground and Aidan would have to carry him home.

“Y’know I had a lot of practice throwin’ my knives as _Fili_ , maybe I’ll even win you one o’ those large teddy bears! How’d you like that?” he says and now Aidan has caught up with and is walking beside him. Dean hears a sigh of surrender from his right shoulder, but strides on.

-

As a matter of fact he _does_ win Aidan the only giant teddy bear left and by the time they’re walking back out of the carnival area, Aidan with the huge toy under one arm and a string of red liquorice in the other, Dean has forgotten everything about him having confessed his gay love for his on-screen brother, and is walking merrily along the path.

Too bad Aidan hasn’t.

“Dean,” he says when the music from the carnival is just a dull thrum in the distance and they’re all alone on a gravel road leading through a park on their way back to the trailer park.

“Yes, Aid?” that’s what he was going to say once he’s spun around to look at the Irishman behind him. What comes out instead sounds a bit more like, well, a _kiss_. Mainly because it was one. A kiss. A kiss from Aidan.

It’s just a peck on the lips, Aidan’s hands on Dean’s face bringing him closer until their lips touched. As simple as that.

“What was that for?” Dean eventually manages to say once he’s got back the ability to form coherent thoughts, and can’t make himself move out of Aidan’s bubble. He’s staring up into Aidan’s smiling eyes and can’t for the life of him look away.

Aidan grins and shrugs, one hand moving to the back of Dean’s head and the other further up to card through the short hairs behind his ear. “This is just me tossin’ that note back at _yer_ head. I crossed out the square that had the ‘yes’ over it.”


End file.
